Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

John 15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." There is not a better description of the Christian life than in John 15. Jesus uses the metaphor of the vine and its branches to illustrate the relationship he has with his followers. Branches cannot grow without being connected to the Vine, just as believers cannot grow without being connected to Christ. The natural outcome of the branch being connected to the Vine is bearing fruit. If there is no fruit, the branch is not conn...

John 14:25-27 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Chapter 14 is one of the richest chapters in all of scripture. It is hard to pick one set of verses, because there are so many classic ones. But I picked these verses above, because we often teach so little about the Holy Spirit. In John 14-17, we see a ton of valuable teaching on the role and work of the Holy Spirit. As you know Jesus is preparing His disciples for His departure, so he is giving them many comforting words of assurance. He tells them in verses 1-3, "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God trust also in me." Then, in 14:6 he says, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes ...

John 13:3-8 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me. 9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well! As Jesus is getting ready to go the cross the verse says, "Jesus had loved his own and was going back to his Father." So he chooses this occasion to show them the full extent of his love. Interestingly it says that God had put everything under...

John 12 Jesus Anointed at Bethany 12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint[a] of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. As Jesus makes his way to Jerusalem and ultimately to the cross, he stops at Mary and Martha's house. They were Lazarus' sisters, who were close friends of Jesus. Martha's personality was about making preparations and getting things ready for her master. Mary was content to sit at Jesus' feet and to worship him. In this instance, she is led to take an expensive perfume and anoint Jesus for his burial. She had amazing insight into who Jesus was, and was one of his most ardent followers. I have always felt Marth...

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15 We have so much to be thankful for in the United States of America. We are a people who are most blessed. We won the lottery by born into this nation. Most importantly we have the freedom to express what we believe, pursue the dream using our gifts and talents, and finally we have been given what Paul calls, "the indescribable gift" in Jesus Christ. Why is Jesus the "indescribable gift"? 1. He has given of the gift eternal life and forgiveness for all of our sins. This is what we call grace. G od's R iches A t C hrist's E xpense! 2. We have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God, who calls us to faith, gives us gifts to use to build up the kingdom, and assures us and reminds us of our salvation in Christ. 3. We have been given the of a relationship with God the Father. Jesus paved the way for us to be in reconciled relationship with God. We don...

John 11 32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Jesus knew Mary and Martha when they invited them into their home in Bethany, where their brother Lazarus also lived. They were some of the more close and personal friends of Jesus. So when Jesus heard reports from the sisters that Lazarus had become sick and was facing death, it seemed odd that Jesus didn't rush to go see him. But Jesus said, "It is my father's glory that he is sick and it will not lead to death." Jesus stayed for two m...

John 10 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep John has used many metaphors for Jesus, and now he uses the image of the good shepherd. In the Old Testament, the shepherd motif was used to describe God's relationship with His people, Israel. We see this reflected in David's Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, and leads me beside the still w...

John 9 24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.” 25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” 26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?” The verbal exchange between the blind man and the Pharisees is one my favorite passages in the bible. The setting is that Jesus has just healed this man, who had been born blind. Normally when someone was born blind it was assumed as that they or their parents had done something wrong to deserve it. What a horrible assumption! In this case, they also wanted to prove that the man who healed him, Jesus, was also a sinner because he healed him on the Sabbath day. This was a day in which no one could work, regardless ...

John 8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he came sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman,...

John 7 16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. Though Jesus was doing great signs to show He was the Son of God, the Pharisees and religious leaders were not buying it. Jesus showed up halfway through the Festival of Tabernacles, where all the Jews gathered for this special occasion. During the middle of the festival Jesus got up to teach and the people were amazed. Since Jesus did not take the traditional route of education for a rabbi, they were amazed at his teaching, though he was uneducated. Or, we might say from a human standpoint. So, Jesus tells the people that his teaching does not come from any human, but straight from God. You can imagine how this went over with all of the religious professionals. You can bet they were thinking, "Who does this guy think he is?" This would not be the first time tha...

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. I don't know about you, but just about my favorite thing to eat is a freshly baked loaf of bread. Nice and hot with butter melted all over it. If there is one thing that I don't think I could give up it is bread. And, cheese is a close second. In Jesus day, bread was one of the main foods people ate. For the Jews, bread was a symbol of God's provision in the wilderness, where God provided bread called "manna". Literally the word meant "what is it?" They did not know what it was but it still fed them. Si...

John 5:19,24-25 The main purpose of John is to show that Jesus is truly the Son of God, and is himself God. So in chapter 5, he begins to make the case of Jesus' divinity. He has just done a miracle to heal a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. He did it on the Sabbath, which again greatly inflamed the Pharisees. So Jesus explains what fueled what He had been doing, and how that related to who he really was. These verses above have one thing in common. Each verse starts with "Very truly I tell you!" This was a literary device for emphasis. It brings extreme importance to what the speaker is saying. Jesus says a lot of important things, but when he wants to say something really important he starts by saying, "Very truly I say to you!" In these verses Jesus asserts three really important truths. 1. Everything Jesus does is a result of what He sees His Father doing. Jesus is showing that His authority to do things comes from the Father alone and bein...

John 4:39-42 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” In John 4, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman who comes to a well for a drink. The woman comes to the well at noon, which is when women came to draw water in Jesus' day. In a bold move Jesus, a Jew, asked the woman for a drink. Then a conversation ensues about the difference between physical thirst and spiritual thirst. Jesus uses the occasion to talk about "living water" which will quench her thirst in a new way. To illustrate the point, Jesus points out her habit of going from husband to husband more than once. ...

John 3 3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit Nicodemus was someone we might call a "seeker". He saw the signs (miracles) Jesus was doing and he was curious. Just who was this Jesus? Could he be the Messiah who was long hoped for? So Nicodemus goes to Jesus at night for fear that he might be found out. Nicodemus...

John 2 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” 11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him Jesus is at a wedding in Cana, when the bridegroom runs out of wine. In the middle eastern culture this would have been a huge "faux pas". Jesus' mother tells her son to fix the problem. Like a good son, he tells the servants to fill the ceremonial jugs, which held 20-30 gallons of water. As the servants drew out the water it had turned into wine. Not only win...

John 1 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. We begin the fourth Gospel of John. John has a very specific purpose that is different than the other three gospels. John is written later in the 1st century, when false teaching was starting to creep into the church. The most major false teaching was that Jesus was not really God. He was either only a prophet not really God. Or, he looked like a human, but he was really a spirit being which was in a human body. So John's main purpose is to show that Jesus is both 100% God and 100% man. We will look for this each day as we go through the 21 chapters of John. Today, like Genesis 1, John states that in the beginning was the "Wor...

Luke 24 25 Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. 26 Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” 27 Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. This story of Jesus walking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is only told in the gospel of Luke. Presumably they were going back home after Jesus' death. It says their faces were sad, despite the fact they had heard of the women's report, and how the men had found Jesus' empty as the women had reported. But these men were still not believing it, so it was logical to just go back home. So what does Jesus do? He takes them through the Old Testament and shows them how all the scriptures point to him. He went through the Torah (the first five books) and the prophets, which po...

Luke 23 18 Then a mighty roar rose from the crowd, and with one voice they shouted, “Kill him, and release Barabbas to us!” 19 (Barabbas was in prison for taking part in an insurrection in Jerusalem against the government, and for murder.) 20 Pilate argued with them, because he wanted to release Jesus. 21 But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Remember we said at the beginning of studying the Gospel of Luke that one of his main purposes was to show that Jesus came to save all people, not just the Jews. And in this story of Jesus' trial, we see the cacophony of voices that contributed to the verdict to crucify Jesus. The Jews wanted to wash their hands of Jesus' death, so they tried to pawn it off on Pontius Pilate. Pilate saw no reason to execute Jesus, and didn't want the blood on his hands either. But in the end the cry rose from the crowd saying "crucify him". You can see the motivation of either the Jewish leaders or Pilate to get rid of him, ...